About a week ago, on a crisp Friday afternoon in March, University of Virginia Darden School of Business student Lang Hoyt found himself grinding Sichuan peppercorns in the back of an open warehouse in Charlottesville.

Beside him, fellow Darden students measured cups of fragrant dark green hops, logged times and quantities in a minute-by-minute spreadsheet or peered at the steaming liquid bubbling away in a large silver vat in the corner.

No, Darden has not suddenly turned into a lab or a culinary school.